A BRIDE-TO-BE says her big day has been ruined thanks to a botched tattoo.

Kelly Hillier McCullough says she has been left distraught after getting a tattoo from Sin On Skin in Irvine, which she says “is a complete mess”.

But business owner Anita Wood, who done the tattoo says Kelly did not return to have her touch ups done which has resulted in the design looking incomplete.

Kelly, who is due to get married in two weeks, went to the studio in High Street in February this year and chose a rose design which was to go on her forearm between her wrist and elbow.

The design was done in stages, finally being completed in April.

However Kelly, from Caron Place in Castlepark, says as soon as the skin healed she realised the design was “badly done” and says the colour has also faded.

She told the Times: “I am distraught about this. It looks terrible. I wanted to get it done for my wedding but now I am just going to be embarrassed by it. I left it a few months to see how it would look after it settled and I have been busy planning my wedding.” But tattoo artist Anita says Kelly has taken six months to ‘realise’ she doesn’t like her tattoo and she didn’t take her advice and come back to have the touch ups completed.

She said: “This client received her tattoo from me in April, during the procedure it was evident that due to medication that she was taking at the time, it was causing her to bleed, thus causing the body to reject the ink. It was explained by myself that she was to return back to me in four weeks time, giving the tattoo a chance to heal and that I would happily touch up any part that had not taken well previously. This is part of the service and no extra charge is ever required. The client left the premises happy with the tattoo I had given her with no complaint.” But Kelly disputes Anita’s version of events, saying she contacted her a few weeks ago to arrange to have the tattoo corrected, and the pair agreed on a day.

But Kelly says she was unable to contact Anita on the day they had agreed on and claims she has been avoiding her ever since.

Kelly said: “She has blocked me (from Facebook) and was ignoring my calls. It’s got to the point now where I don’t actually want her to correct it, after the mess she made of it first time around. I just want my money back so I can go elsewhere and have it fixed.” But Anita says she was not ignoring Kelly’s calls, but had recently undergone surgery and was off work for three weeks.

She added: “I was first aware of the issue two weeks ago - some six months after the procedure had taken place. Due to having surgery at the time of being contacted and not being able to work for three weeks I offered for the client to arrange a time and date that suited both parties for me to rectify the tattoo free of charge. Instead the client has chosen to publish derogatory comments over local social media, instead of allowing me to correct the work, which I was more than happy to do.”